This time around, I was lucky enough to add a couple brand new species to my collection as well as get a species back that I had been searching for much too long. With that known, let's get into this thing. 😛
Around the same time that the events in the "Straight Off the Ranch" post happened, I was scouring the Facebook universe and somehow managed to stumble upon a very neat business, Smug Bug, ran by Laura Mae Riepl. As I scrolled through their availability list, my eyes came to a hard stop...…..EUPOLYPHAGA SINENSIS. 😮 The roach that I had not seen available at all since I lost my white-eyed colony of them was on an a sale list right before my very eyes!!! Of course, I knew I had to acquire a group somehow. Laura was very easy to chat with and we quickly agreed to a trade not just for the Eupolyphaga, but an additional two species as well! 😊 The package took three days to arrive after being shipped (instead of the normal two) and when everything was said and done, I received 12 Eupolyphaga sinensis nymphs, a one male/two female group of Porcellio hoffmanseggi, and 5+ Porcellionides pruinosus "White Out"! Everything arrived in spectacular condition besides the Porcellionides - the piece of vegetable that was included in their shipping cup rotted while still in shipping, stuck to a bunch of substrate forming a big clump, and fatally smashed a good number of the individuals. 😞 Of course, all I want to do is start a colony whenever I really acquire anything, so hopefully the 5+ living individuals will do. Anyway, let's examine my new additions.
Although the Eupolyphaga that I got this time around lack the white eyes of my previous group, they still sport all the other awesome qualities of them such as Arenivage bolliana-esque adult males, huge, tall adult females, and reflective, bronze setae, etc. If the white-eyed morph should not be made available again anytime soon, I should still be able to isolate the same morph myself down the line from these normal individuals. 🙂 My nymphs are pretty much all small to medium-sized at the moment, so I hope they hurry up and grow fast as I'd like to start culturing them as soon as possible. I'm currently keeping these guys in a 64 oz. container with a healthy amount of pinholes poked around the rim. They're on a moist mix of coconut fiber, coconut husk, sphagnum moss, and cypress mulch with a portion of dead leaves on top of that. I will try and let the top 1/3 or so of the substrate dry out since they should be kept in conditions similar to Therea spp.
Here's some pics of the little Chinese Medicinals and their enclosure!
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| Medium-sized E.sinensis nymph |
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| Small E.sinensis nymph |
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Mixed-size E.sinensis nymphs
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| E.sinensis enclosure |
I've kept Porcellionides pruinosus many times before while living at my previous house as they were usually abundant in the yard. A morph of them however, I have not kept before. This morph, just like the one by the same name in Porcellio scaber, produces no dark pigmentation leaving the whole individual white - very, very cool indeed! 😁 What I actually received from the shipment is kind of sketchy; I spotted at least 5 larger individuals in the enclosure and about 2 younger ones. I'm unsure if these are all specimens I received or if the larger individuals possibly had babies and two are just all I've uncovered, I don't know. I'm keeping these guys in a 64 oz. container with a generous portion of pinholes around the rim for ventilation. I'm keeping them on a slightly moist mix of compost soil, topsoil, perlite, and cypress mulch for substrate with a spot of dead leaves for consumption, a moist clump of sphagnum moss in one of the corners for moisture regulation, and a piece of bark for hiding.
Get ready for your computer screen to get properly whited-out. 😛
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| Larger P.pruinosus "White Out" individuals |
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| P.pruinosus "White Out" enclosure |
This is where the post unfortunately get's a bit sour. I had taken a bunch of nice pics and such of the new Porcellio hoffmanseggi, which I was nearly ready to post, but upon checking on them a couple days ago, I was horrified to see that they had dried out. ☹️ They are supposed to be one of the easiest of the Spanish isopods, so I certainly wasn't expecting this; I guess the enclosure just dried out faster than I was anticipating. One thing's for certain, I need to get much less laid back on my Spanish isopod care (you'll tell why even better in an upcoming post). I would love to breed this species and so I very well may get some again soon, but we'll just have to see.
Not to end on a bad note, I have a surprise-packed 100th post in the making for next time we meet, which I'm very excited to share as soon as I can! 😁 Hopefully I can get that published here in the next couple days and I'll see you at said post #100, goodb…….I actually forgot. I thought I'd leave you guys with the slightly mammalian roach that lives on the Smug Bug business card just for the heck of it. 😛 For real this time, goodbye!
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